Jan Mostaert - Portrait of a Courtier

2005.12.20 14:37

Jan Mostaert (ca. 1475 – ca. 1555)

Portrait of a Courtier(also known as the
Portrait of Charles VIII
– king of France)

Oil on wood, 42 x 32.5 cm.

The painting comes from a collection of artworks amassed by Izabela Działyńska nee Czartoryska in Paris during the second half of the 19th
century for the Gołuchów Museum being created at the time. The collection was to be housed in a 16th
century castle, former residence of the Leszczyński family, reconstructed by Działyńska. The painting, along with other 16th
century portraits, mainly of the Dutch and French schools, adorned the duchess’ Renaissance bedroom. It was paired with the portrait of a lady, by the same painter, for years considered to be the portrait of Anne de Bretagne, the wife of Charles VIII.

In the summer of 1939, Ludwika Maria Czartoryska nee Krasińska, the owner of the museum, decided to have the most precious items in the museum’s collections transported to Warsaw for safekeeping in the event of war. Among them were eight small 15th
and 16th
century paintings, notably including two portraits by Mostaert, which were kept at the duchess’ apartment in her house at 12 Kredytowa Street.

At the end of September 1939, the paintings were seized by Germans and transported to the National Museum in Warsaw. On October 9th
1944, after the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, they were taken to Austria, where they were stored at Fischorn castle near Zell am See. There, all the paintings were stolen by the Germans themselves or by local inhabitants.

The
Portrait of a Courtier, unsuccessfully sought by the Republic of Poland for many years, was listed in the catalogue of war losses in the area of foreign painting, published by the Polish Ministry of Culture in 2002. The painting had resurfaced in one of the New York galleries in 1948. It was bought a year later by Mrs A. D. Williams and donated to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 1952.

In late 1990s, the museum conducted an examination of the provenance of artworks in its collections in order to identify items that may have come from war theft. Since the Mostaert had been listed in the internet database of Polish losses administered by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington, the Museum in Richmond notified our Embassy that they were in possession of it. On the basis of documentation transferred from Poland, our Embassy prepared a restitution request and conducted talks which resulted in the return of the painting.

Upon the request of the heirs of Izabela Działyńska nee Czartoryska, the
Portrait of Charles VIII
was transferred as deposit to the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow.